Author: Susan Jones
Publication: CNSNews.com
Date: January 10, 2005
URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200501%5CNAT20050110a.html
Christian missionaries hope to spread
the Word of God along with relief supplies in South Asian nations devastated
by the tsunami. But the religious outreach isn't going over well with some
Muslims.
"We need to get past the death toll
and get focused on the living -- because that's where our ministry is going
to be," the Baptist Press quoted its disaster relief coordinator in Aceh,
Indonesia, as saying.
The coordinator -- whose real name
was not given for security reasons -- told the Baptist Press, "We've got
an opportunity to reshape the people's perception of Christianity. They've
got us categorized in just one box [together with all Westerners]....We
can reshape that."
The Council on American-Islamic
Relations, in a recent email to supporters, said Christian missionaries
are "exploiting the tsunami suffering."
In its Jan. 7 "American Muslim News
Briefs," CAIR included a report from the Agape Press, which noted that
a Virginia-based missions ministry has sent teams to South Asia "to fulfill
disaster victims' needs even as it works to fulfill the Great Commission."
"When they're passing out a bottle
of water, a blanket, a lantern, a candle, they're passing out gospel tracts
with them," the Agape Press quoted that ministry spokesman as saying.
The spokesman said missionaries
are seizing the opportunity "to be a witness of the love of Jesus Christ
to the Hindus, to the Muslims, to whoever was affected, certainly fulfilling
the commandment to take the gospel to everybody."
CAIR's newsletter also linked to
a second report, this one in the Philadelphia Inquirer, saying that evangelical
Christian groups plan to bring the Gospel to tsunami victims along with
relief supplies.
The Inquirer quoted one missionary
as saying that the tsunami disaster "is one of the greatest opportunities
God has given us to share his love with people."
